What happens to the ET1 Claim Form 





First, the tribunal office checks the Form ET1. It will be rejected if:




• you have not used Form ET1;





• there is no Acas EC Certificate reference number;





• information is missing, for example, the employer’s name and address;





• the tribunal has no power to consider it; 





• the claim is in a form that “cannot sensibly be responded to or is otherwise an abuse of the process” (rule 12).





Claimants can ask for reconsideration of a decision to reject the claim within 14 days.
A judge should only reject a claim at this stage if they are certain it cannot be responded to. If there is any doubt, the claim must be accepted and problems must be addressed at the next stage, called Initial Consideration. This gives the affected party the chance to be heard (Trustees of the William Jones Schools Foundation v Parry [2016] UKEAT/0089/16/JOJ).




Assuming the Form ET1 is not rejected, a copy is sent to the employer who is invited to complete a Response Form known as Form ET3. A copy also goes to Acas. The response form must be completed and returned within 28 days of the date that the tribunal office sends the employer the copy of the claim.